What style of apps pique market interest? It better be free!
Whether you run a business large or small, the advent of mobile-ready apps and other programs have changed the landscape of marketing and digital strategy. Apps have the potential to improve your company’s customer service, bring your products to new audiences or develop an interactive platform to look at your product line in a different way, so when you find the perfect blend of features for your chosen audience, how will you decide to release it to the masses?
Should I charge for my app?
After all that time and effort you put into your app, you’ll want to try and reimburse some of that investment by charging up front for your services, right? In reality, apps that charge up front for downloads tend to be the least popular programs on the market, and on the whole, most consumers seek out apps that are free, and give little time to those that will hit them in the wallets.
According to October 2014 research conducted by Zogby Analytics for the Digital Advertising Alliance, users who download apps are far more likely to sit through a series of in-app ads with a free application than they are to fork over their hard-earned cash for an app with no ads. 35.7 percent of the study particpants preferred free or low-cost apps supported by in-app ads, while just 2.7 percent opted for more expensive apps with no ads or in-app purchases.
The picture becomes even clearer when this same group of people is asked the pivotal question: what percentage of your free apps would you download again if they were paid apps? Shockingly, a whopping 46.4 percent of respondents said that they would have skipped downloading them altogether if they had to pay up front.
What’s the best choice for my app?
The vast majority of app users today has grown up in the age of the internet and know a thing or two about pop-up ads, so this is a group that has been conditioned to either ignore or simply get used to the idea of random advertising on web platforms. As long as they are not paying money up front for programs that they use every day, they are certainly willing to look past minor inefficiencies that delay their ability to use apps.
The bottom line for marketers is that in-app advertising and other sources of revenue are far more effective in getting an app off the ground than charging up front. In time as apps become more comprehensive, a larger market may emerge, but at this point, it’s the open source, free market free-for-all that will continue to hold sway in the world of digital marketing!
